Typical metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) may include a semiconductor (e.g., silicon), electrodes to contact a source and drain, and an electrode to contact or couple with a gate. In some examples, the contact electrodes and/or the gate electrode may be metal electrodes. Further, transistors may typically be separated from each other by a dielectric material such as a field insulator or field oxide. For example, FIG. 1B illustrates a cross-section of typical transistors in a circuit taken along dashed A-A′ line of FIG. 1A, which illustrates a plan view of typical transistors in a microelectronic device 100, such as an integrated circuit. As shown in FIG. 1A, a gate electrode 120, a contact electrode 130, and a contact electrode 142 may contact a fin portion 112 of a semiconductor pillar 110 (please refer to FIG. 1A). Similarly, a contact electrode 144 may contact other semiconductor pillars, as shown. As shown in FIG. 1B, semiconductor pillar 110 may also include a base portion 114 adjacent to fin portion 112. Also as shown in FIG. 1A, one or more vias 150a-150d may couple to gate electrode 120 and/or contact electrodes 130, 142, 144 generally to provide electric coupling between the transistors and higher level electrical interconnects, which are not shown for the sake of clarity.
As shown in FIG. 1B, an oxide layer 160 may be disposed on substrate 105 and adjacent to base portion 114 of semiconductor pillar 110, a nitride layer 170 may be disposed on oxide layer 160 and adjacent to base portion 114 of semiconductor pillar 110, and a field insulator 180 (typically a field oxide) may be disposed on nitride layer 170 and adjacent to base portion 114 of semiconductor pillar 110. Also as shown, regions may be defined such that, for example, device regions 192, 194 may include regions having one or more semiconductor pillars and generally little or no field insulator 180 therein while other regions may be defined as field regions 196 (please refer to FIG. 1B). That is, regions having only a field insulator may be considered field regions and areas having active devices and little or no field insulator may be considered device regions such as, for example, device regions 192, 194.
As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, portions of gate electrode 120, contact electrode 130, contact electrode 142, and/or contact electrode 144 may extend over portions of the field insulator and into field regions 196. For example, it may be typical for the electrodes to be physically larger than the silicon used to form an intrinsic transistor including semiconductor pillar 110. Further, as shown in FIG. 1B, the depth of gate electrode 120 in device region 192, DX, may be substantially the same as the depth of gate electrode 120 in the field region, DF. For example, field insulator 180 may be recessed with respect to semiconductor pillar 110 such that the top of field insulator 180 may be substantially below the top of fin portion 112 of semiconductor pillar 110 and substantially aligned with the bottom of fin portion 112. Although shown with respect to gate electrode 120, contact electrodes 130, 140, 142 may include similar structures.